Following Dvorák's lead, Gershwin and Ives both evoked the popular spirit of American music. They validated borrowing from the American folk tradition and indigenous jazz. Gershwin transformed old musical clichés with a slight twist of originality. In Rhapsody in Blue he borrowed from Liszt in terms of form and style, borrowed from jazz the way Liszt borrowed from Hungarian gypsy music in his rhapsodies, and borrowed from Tchaikovsky, especially in the slow movement. Ives borrowed from popular dance hall tunes, hymns and patriotic anthems, brass band marches, country dances, and songs. Like Gershwin, he borrowed from the jazz idiom; also like Gershwin he fused his borrowings from American popular and folk traditions with his borrowings from the traditions and styles of European art music.

Works: Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (150-152), Cuban Overture (152-53), Porgy and Bess (153-55); Ives: Song for the Harvest Season (159), Second Piano Sonata ("Concord") (162, 164-65).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Daniel Bertram